Tuesday, January 24, 2012

I've been counting down the days until we could celebrate a special anniversary -- Bridgette having been hospital free for one year.

The anniversary, if we arrive there, will occur on March 2, 2012.

Feel free to party in her honor! I'm a fan of parties.

If we don't make it, you may find out rather soon. She is not well today.

What started as a nasty virus that has been making the rounds (Jeff, some cousins, stuff like that) has moved from the regular-symptoms inside Bridgette (fever, runny nose, body aches, wet cough, etc) into the irregular (severe dehydration, fever, vomiting, gas trapped in the upper Ileum, feeling hungry with no ability to eat, and the tell-tale, uncontrollable, make-you-vomit-when-you-smell-it diarrhea that only the enteritis-familiar can truly appreciate).

All these things indicate some serious internal baddies and total bowel shutdown. Remember the drill? It's the question of what will kill her first, dehydration or pressure building in her intestines until they rupture, causing all kinds of trouble, including sepsis. The whole no-food-intake doesn't help.

Possible actions include but are not limited to -- a return to rectal irrigations (manual bowel flushes), stool samples /cultures /antibiotics, and hospitalization for IV fluids. Not fun, but not bad.

For the time being, she feels really sick.

It makes me really sad.

Also, none of us are sleeping.

That's another action that might help, but for the moment, sleep eludes us.

I'm taking a momentary break to update while B tries but fails to nap (many attempts), despite having been up all night long watching Barney. After two nights of shoddy rest and feverish illness, I can't believe she hasn't collapsed into slumber yet. But... she feels so sick, she just can't close her eyes for more than a few minutes at a time.

I would like her to get better, obviously. And if she doesn't under our care alone, we'll be headed up to PCMC within 24 hours.

After finally falling asleep for a couple of hours, she woke up singing, "Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go!" Not the words of course but the tune. She's very excited to get on a plane to come visit you soon. I hope we don't have rivers and woods to cross before we get there.

Still feverish. Coughing like crazy. And every time she coughs it starts her gag reflex cuz her tummy hurts. I felt around, and she complained of pain when I pressed. She so rarely tells me her tummy hurts anymore, even when it's the size of a balloon.

I'm so sorry to hear Bri's not feeling well. Uncle Paulie and I are sending her much love and good wishes to all of you and you're in our prayers. Will be watching for updates. Let me know if you need anything!